Rewrite. If Elvis Presley had lived he'd have been 75 today. What do you think he would have done with the rest of his life had he lived?

Elvis was one of our great 20th century artists, but given the road along which he had been led (or dragged), I doubt he would have aged gracefully—either physically or professionally. If, however, he had he been able to escape the management constraints he was under and pursue his passions including acting, he might currently be enjoying a happy, fulfilled life.

I lived in Memphis on the day this occurred; total pandemonium. I think if he were still alive, he would have been married 3 more times, Botox and other drugs would still be his friend. Same addiction, different year.

Had he lived, he would be in jail for killing Michael Jackson.

Eh, if not at 42, then at 43, or 46. He’d been a dead man walking since at least 1972. I don’t believe he would have ever made it to 75. Isn’t it Bowie’s birthday today as well? Or it’s pretty soon? And Michael Stipe’s?

I was 8 when he died, and that was many years before the rap group Public Enemy were around, but the lyric of one of their songs summed up the attitude of my family and neighbors about him: “Elvis was a hero to most, but he never meant shit to me.”

Absolutely no one I knew was upset about it, and it was verboten to say you liked him where I raised, as many, many people thought he was a cultural thief and would get spitting mad at the mention of his name. I remember my aunt rolling her eyes at all the waling on TV. She was a lot more upset when John Lennon was murdered a few years later, which surprised me. I was under the impression that she liked no white music acts at all, but apparently, she loved The Beatles.

I personally came to enjoy Elvis’ music after I grew up, and was able to find out for myself that he wasn’t the horrible person that people around me claimed that he was. That Colonel Parker guy, though, there’s a dude who needed a beatdown.

Probably the state fair and small venue tour singing the same old songs over and over for the past 20 years.

If Elvis had lived, he probably would have moved to Nashville like the rest of the aging recording artists of his time. he would have left his mansion in Memphis for one reason: to collect money from not only one touring location for his fans, but rather two locations. i was vaguely familiar with Elvis Presley. since his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, lived in Nashville and close to my address, i routinely would see both of them. in the early years for Elvis, The Jordanaires were his exclusive “backup vocal group” on many of his recordings. one of the members of The Jordanaires was the manager of one of my first rock and roll bands i formed in the early 60s. i have always hated what happened to Elvis and his drug addiction. but, being on the road a lot myself, i can understand why it was hard to go to sleep at night and wake up doing the same acts over and over again. his drugs became out of control for him. Elvis made his mark on the people throughout the world. he will always be remembered on his birthday. the fans will see to this.

@filmfann – You got that right!

MJ would have died a long time ago.

@ Well he’d have ate him anyway. Eat it!

If Elvis had lived, he’d have spent the last 32+ years scratching at the lid of his coffin!

sorry, couldn’t resist

But seriously, Elvis was an important milestone in rock and roll history. He made “black” music palatable for white audiences and helped usher in rock and roll itself. He was vital for his sound, his look, his style…he brought a sexual energy to the youth culture, gave society a sense of rebelliousness in its music. But he never innovated. When the Beatles came about and unlike Elvis, they wrote most of their own songs, and unlike Elvis, they experimented with new sounds (not just sounds that were new to them), they basically took rock and roll away from Elvis. At that point, Elvis became a superstar, someone who could do virtually whatever he wanted (like the Rolling Stones today), and make money hand over fist. He made movies. He made country music. He made gospel music. And in doing these things he increased his audience. He also performed…that’s where he always shone, even when he was older, fatter and more used up, he still had he power to put on a show. It’s kind of like today, does anyone really expect Billy Joel or Elton John to come up with another massive #1 hit like they used to make all the time? No, but people still pay $150 a ticket to see them together because they are entertainers. Their creativity is no longer visceral, it’s no longer new and exciting and fresh…they have nothing left to say, and such was the case with Elvis by the time the 60s rolled around, much less ‘77 when he died.

I have a tremendous respect for Elvis for what he was, and I am sure that if he had pulled his life together, lost the weight, got off the drugs and become healthy and never had a heart attack, he would have continued to perform. He might have managed to score a couple more hit singles in the 80s, he certainly would have put out tons of albums, he probably would have made more money than ever with each passing year. But yeah, he’d end up touring casinos, or having his own theater in Branson, or doing state and county fairs. But we really didn’t lose anything when we lost Elvis to be quite frank, not in terms of creative potential. But it’s still interesting to think of a 75 year old Elvis.

Now of course, there is another interesting theory. There is a movie called Bubba Ho Tep, and the premise is that Elvis (played by Bruce Campbell) is still alive, and is now impotent and rotting away in a nursing home, forgotten. This happened because no one knows he’s really Elvis. In the 70s, Elvis had sought out a conversation with the world’s premier Elvis impersonator, and he struck a deal with the fake Elvis. Elvis wanted to disappear from the spotlight, so they signed an agreement that they would switch places until Elvis wanted his life back, the contract being proof of what happened. Well, Elvis’ copy of the contracts go up in smoke when the trailer he’s living in explodes, and this impersonator ended up loving the life of excess and threw himself wholeheartedly into the drugs and food and everything else. So, ultimately it was this impersonator who died, and the real Elvis had no way of getting back to his real life, so he ended up as an Elvis impersonator. So, now an elderly Elvis and his roommate, who claims to be JFK…and may actually be (even though he’s black…there’s an elaborate story as to how this came about), played by Ossie Davis, realize that an ancient spirit is nourishing itself on the souls of the elderly patrons of this nursing home, he sucks out their remaining life force, they die and no one is the wiser because they were going to die soon anyway. Problem is, if their souls get eaten, these people never get to go to the great beyond, but instead they end up being excreted into the toilet as a waste product of the spirit’s digestion. So, the elderly Elvis and elderly black JFK have to fight off the ancient evil to keep any more of the old folks from becoming spirit poop.

I suppose anything is possible.

If Elvis lived to by 75, he would now weigh 450 pounds. Did you see how many pounds he was starting to pack on before he started to treat drugs like he was treating chocolate cake?